“It sounds exactly like you’re the one making the rules.” I laughed, aimlessly tracing the lines of his lips. They were swollen and kissed to hell and I leaned down and kissed him again. “I wasn’t expecting this.”
“I’m glad you called me.”
I steered clear of relationships because of my line of work. It was always easier to hook up with men when the need got too pressing and then move along. Less of a mess, less prying, no fear of disappointing someone or being judged.
I didn’t need a companion.
I had Ophelia, or my family, or my clients if desperation ran deep, but I never let myself believe I might be lonely without someone else. I was perfectly fine alone.
But for some reason beingalonewith Mateo was what I found myself wanting. I wasn’t done with him, no matter how much I knew I should be. No matter how selfish it was to keep seeing him and pushing this hope along. But it was just sex, fun, and a date. We weren’t committing to each other for life here. I didn’t owe him anything unless there was the possibility of somethingmore.
Morefelt like a rock sinking to the bottom of my stomach the longer I lay there on his perfectly hard chest, staring into his golden-brown eyes.
I fell to his side, stretching my limbs while Mateo sat up and tugged the condom off, tying it and tossing it into the garbage can beside my nightstand.
“I think there’s three left,” I said enthusiastically.
A bright smile crested across his face and he dropped back onto the pillow beside me. The lights were on, and we were fully naked and relaxed like two people who’d been together a decade already. I felt like I’d know this man just as long in not only my heart but my soul.
“You don’t have any tattoos,” Mateo said matter-of-factly. There was a graft of amusement in his gravelly voice.
I tugged my lip between my teeth. “No, I don’t.”
chapter eight
Mateo
I hadaninklingof how badly Frankie was going to fuck me by up and leaving Florida with Ophelia. Logistically, letting my co-owner and only employee quit without a proper two-week notice was going to leave me in the doghouse as far as my clients and my sanity were concerned no matter what. And no, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. As a matter of fact, in the end, I had been the one to kick him in the ass and drive him to the airport to go chasing her onto her flight—and I would do it a thousand times over. That didn’t mean in the back of my mind I didn’t know how much backwork and scrambling was going to be needed to replace him.
Pike and I as partners were a well-oiled machine. We’d been that way since Delta. I called the shots and he was the driver—or the pilot in our case. TechOps was more of the same. I did the clerical shit, marketed the business, talked my talk, and then showed up with Pike and he operated the mechanics.
I’d spent two weeks interviewing potential replacements for him and gotten a revolving door of newly graduated frat boys with not a dollop of cybersecurity experience or eagerness to learn a new skill. I had no problem training someone—software was software—but I would never let fresh meat go out on theirown and risk tainting the name I built without proper guidance. I was proud of the things I’d accomplished in life. The military, TechOps, our cam business, Natalia. But what I couldn’t train wasuninspired,unwilling, orunmotivated.
The radio in my car mumbled a rock song as I idled in the parking lot on my first and only break of the day. Losing track of time at work meant lonely meals at three in the afternoon and calling Frankie to fill that void with complaints.
“They’re a bunch of do-nothings, Pike.” I balanced my phone on the dashboard and unzipped the lunchbox on my lap. The first thing I noticed was the napkin folded at the top and covered in Sharpie.Made with love, from your momma xo.
“You gotta hire someone,” Pike said. “Pick the one you dislike the least.”
I quickly crumpled the love note napkin in a ball and tossed it in my center console. “The one I dislike the least has a fucking mullet. It’s 2024, and the kid looks like he’s gonna break out in a dance number with his buddies on the top of his high school bleachers.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“It’s about integrity.” I opened a food container filled with short stalks of celery, all lathered through the middle with peanut butter and dotted with raisins. I closed the container. “What other rash and unintelligent decisions are you making when you already have a mullet?”
“What other choice do you have?”
My head dropped back against the headrest with a thud. “I had two interviews, a new client consultation, and three installations already today. My mother has called me twice to tell me she found eggplant on sale, the second time because she forgot she told me the first time. Last night I fucked Tally wearing a tail and covered in blue paint that stained my balls on top of all that, oh yeah, we’re planning a fucking wedding!”
“I want to knowlessthings about you.”
“Too bad.” I dug into a plastic sandwich baggie and pulled out one corner of a ham and cheese that had been cut in four. I shoved the entire piece into my mouth. “You’re my best man. It’s par for the course.”
“I meant to tell you, Iadorethese cute little groomsmen boxes you sent us.”
“Fuck off, you know I had nothing to do with that.” Tally wouldn’t take no for an answer. Even when I explained that men don’t need the same fanfare and a group text with a date and a time would do just fine to get my four groomsmen to the altar when they needed to be there. She took the liberty upon herself anyway, and I’m too smart a man to fight her.
“Particularly the ‘I couldn’t tie the knot without you’tie. Very punny, man.”
